Altkom contracted Millward Brown/SMG KRC to carry out the research. It was conducted between October 2008 and March 2009, and its results clearly show the direction the education market is moving in. “Contrary to what might be expected, the percentage of companies interested in training courses did not decrease, but soared up by 12% as compared to the previous year. As you can see, employers treat the recession period as an appropriate moment to build up competencies of their personnel and benefit from them once the crisis is over,” said Danuta Bluj, Educational Service Delivery Manager, Altkom Akademia. “On the other hand, companies participating in our survey signaled that they would be forced to cut the training course budgets, which means that managers remember to optimize costs,” she added.

The research shows that large and medium enterprises tend to spend more on educating their employees than small companies. The scope of courses chosen in 2009 also depended on the organization size. Larger institutions more frequently allocate resources for “soft-competence” courses, while smaller ones educate their employees in fields related to day-to-day business operations, such as finance, accounting and law. “Data gathered during the research we commissioned indicates that the recession is going to influence large companies to the least extent. And considering the fact that large companies are key contributors to the value of the entire market, businesses providing educational services have no reasons to worry,” commented Zosia Wodnicka, Marketing Manager, Altkom Akademia.